Have you ever attended any training that was supposed to enhance your job skills (e.g. Project Management, SAP, Siebel etc.) and then you ended up never using what you had learned? Or have you read books that you thought were great but you never really applied what you read? I have, and I consider it a waste of time. To handle this more efficiently it is critical to think ahead of time how important a change is for you and how much effort you are willing to put into it. Once you are clear about this, you can really practice what you have learned. Let's look at an example: You are struggling to get all the necessary tasks done during your regular working hours. In order to find more time you prioritze tasks by reading time management books, you listen to podcasts, go to speeches etc. Nevertheless too many emails demand your attention during the day. In fact these emails distract you so much that all the benefits of your task prioritzation effort seem useless. In this case it would make sense to start strictly regulating the times when you check email. Instead of reading more books (or listen to more podcasts or ...) it would be more effective to practice what you already know. You already know what the challenge is and you also know what to do about it but you have a hard time to actually do it.
Don't read about the same skills in 50 different books just in order to feel that you do something about your challenges. Instead find a book (or whatever works for you) that works for you and then practice what you want to master.
